October 7, 2017

Basic elements every blog should have

A blog is now a common part of every major website. Blogs used to be the domain of the lone writer or the personal diary. Now they are an integral part of any marketing strategy. The popularity of inbound marketing has seen every major brand launch or introduce a blog. Regardless of size, each and every blog should have a few important elements, here are a few of them:

Breadcrumbs

The Breadcrumbs display at the top of the page shows where the current page falls in the hierarchy of the site’s content. The first levels before the current page could be other pages or categories. Either way, it gives the user a sense of where they are. It is also one of the easiest elements to add. On some themes, it is a single option.

Categories

A list of categories on the sidebar is another important element. These categories are another form of navigation. A visitor can browse through the entire history of the site’s posts in a particular category until they find something of interest. Too many websites categorize posts, only to bury that category link somewhere on the page.

Search

Too many blogs have no search bar or one that does not work very well. When it does work, the results lack formatting, cannot be filtered by category or not descriptive enough. Some sites have simply pointed to Google Site Search instead. A good site-wide or blog-wide search is very important and is common point location for high bounce rates.